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Re: Why no female dwarves??

Originally Posted by Radhruin_EU

Oh hell no. The whole point was that even the Elves, sharp-eyed though they were, couldn't tell female Dwarves from male if they were all dressed alike. The only way others could tell for sure was that female Dwarves only travelled if they absolutely had to and never went to war. That effectively rules out female Dwarven adventurers, which is why the game doesn't encourage the idea.

Feminine-looking female Dwarves would be about as appropriate as giving Elves purple skin and foot-long pointy ears

It also seems problematic because we don't have any idea what passes for "feminine" for a dwarf really so how do introduce it in game. All you would be doing is making them "feminine" in the same sense ans humans, elves and hobbits, which they clearly were not. So it just seems operationally impossible.

Re: Why no female dwarves??

Originally Posted by Radhruin_EU

Oh hell no. The whole point was that even the Elves, sharp-eyed though they were, couldn't tell female Dwarves from male if they were all dressed alike. The only way others could tell for sure was that female Dwarves only travelled if they absolutely had to and never went to war. That effectively rules out female Dwarven adventurers, which is why the game doesn't encourage the idea.

You'll note I did not say "sharp-eyed strangers", I specified kinsmen, ie: close friends and family.

As for lore saying they didn't go to war, neither did females from other races. As I said above, LOTRO is created for a 21st century audience, and the books were written starting in the 1930's; a much less progressive time.

Re: Why no female dwarves??

Originally Posted by Nimenthe

You'll note I did not say "sharp-eyed strangers", I specified kinsmen, ie: close friends and family.

Family would be other Dwarves, who could obviously tell

As for close non-Dwarven friends, no, not even then. Not unless she told them (or they chanced to see her unclothed), and even then they'd still be completely unable to spot other female Dwarves based on her example.

As for lore saying they didn't go to war, neither did females from other races. As I said above, LOTRO is created for a 21st century audience, and the books were written starting in the 1930's; a much less progressive time.

No, Tolkien said specifically that Dwarven women did not go to war, that being one way to tell a female Dwarf apart. He said nothing so specific about the other races (naturally not, with the likes of Eowyn about), allowing for exceptions.

What it boils down to is that Dwarves weren't like everybody else. Talk of the game and 'progressive' times is quite irrelevant as despite being obviously modern otherwise (to a foolish degree, if anything) the game actually respects the lore difficulties with female Dwarves, and rightly so.

Re: Why no female dwarves??

Male Dwarves definitely know the difference, I found a Female Dwarf Axe in Kazarhdum, it had curves a playful spick and a built in comb that High born Lady Dwarf would cary, I show it to a Male Dwarf in the 21 hall who referred me to a Historian Dwarf in Orc Watch, Who confirm that it was indeed a Lady Dwarf Axe and send me to find the Woman's Housing building in Moira Idid find it and was presented for it with a Lady Dwarf Sword as a mementos of the discovery.

Re: Why no female dwarves??

Bizarrely, there should be no Dwarves at all anymore. Aule only created seven dwarves, all of which were male. Since he created no others, they wouldn't have been able to reproduce. Of course, you'd have to assume that Eru decided to make some females (and probably a few extra males) too, since the original Dwarves became lord of their own clans which would not be possible otherwise.

Re: Why no female dwarves??

1. I believe that dwarf women DO have beards, as far as I can deduce from the books (including others than LotR). I don't know if they're beard are as long or thick as male dwarves' beards, but the difference between a young dwarf male and a dwarf woman would be hard to tell anyway.

2. In the books, it is stated that there are, in fact, VERY FEW dwarf women. Therefore I believe that not only they are not spoken of anywhere in the stories (except for Dis of course, the mother of Fili and Kili), but the stories contain no female dwarfs whatsoever. All the people who say they think Gimli might be a female dwarf or other dwarves in the stories might be female dwarves are just talking plain rubbish to me :P

The Road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can.
~Bilbo Baggins~

This is why dwarves in dresses annoys me. A female dwarf in Tolkien's world would not logically wear a dress.

I think Pratchett got it right with his dwarves; very similar to Tolkien but with a humorous bent. Ie, part of dwarven courtship is the delicate matter of trying to figure out the sex of the other person before you get married instead of after. And his dwarves were shocked and angry when one of them decided to just start publicly proclaiming to be a female and wearing a dress like a human.

Hey, I've got a male dwarf alt and he LOVES to wear a dress - easier to go to the toilet! rofl